The holiday season is certainly underway in our classroom! Selections from Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite” fill the air as the children come to circle, and is used during listening and movement activities. Hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills are being honed while the children create Christmas ornaments, push-pinning and cutting works. Other holiday inspired works including sequencing, matching, sorting, and counting are also classroom favorites. The children are especially enjoying the wide variety of Christmas books that we have been reading.

Next week, we will discuss and read books centered around Hanukkah. In celebration of the Festival of Lights, the children will make menorah sculptures and prepare delicious potato latkes.

During our final days before winter break, the children will learn about the seven principals of Kwanzaa. Our Kwanzaa craft will be an mkeka, a mat on which the symbols of kwanzaa are placed. An ear of corn (muhindi) is set on the mkeka to represent each child in the family.

Holiday Party & Gift Exchange

Our class is having a holiday party and gift exchange on Thursday, December 15th. Please sign up on the sheet outside of our classroom if you are able to donate items for the party. The sheet will be posted on Monday morning. Attached you will find further information about the gift exchange.

Reminder

Wednesday, December 7th is our Fall Music Showcase

The showcase will begin at 10:00 a.m. in our classroom. If you are unable to make it to the showcase, please let me know so that arrangements can be made for your child to sit with another family. Thank you!

Our class will be celebrating Thanksgiving with a special lunch on Friday, November 18th. Your son/daughter will not need to bring a lunch that day. A signup sheet has been posted for items that we will need for our feast. Thank you in advance for your generosity!

** There will also be an additional signup sheet on the bulletin for the vocal ensemble studio that I direct for our Carols and Cocoa event. Although your help is greatly appreciated, PLEASE DO NOT PUT YOUR NAME ON THIS SHEET. This signup sheet is for families in the vocal ensemble only (Your family is welcome to attend this event though ….. invitation to follow!).

Report Card Conferences

Parent/Teacher conferences will be held from Wednesday, November 9th – Wednesday, November 16th. During this time we will discuss your child’s report card and his/her progress in the preschool classroom. Please sign up for a time on the sheet posted on the bulletin board outside of our classroom. If the days and times are not convenient for you, please let me know and we can set up another time. If you do not sign up for a conference, your child’s report card will be sent home on Friday, November 18th.

We had such a great time celebrating the Olympics in our classroom this month. Books, pictures and videos were utilized to spark discussions and activities about the Summer Olympics. Everyone made gold medals that were handed out after our very own Preschool Olympics. The events that were included in our Preschool Olympics were the relay, balance beam, long jump and Olympic ring toss. An album will be placed on Facebook soon. In the meantime, be sure to check out some great pictures from our Olympic unit on the back of this paper. The Olympic ring push-pinning and painting projects that have been hanging on our walls will be sent home in next week’s folder.

September Show-and-Tell

September 1st: beginning sound “m”

September 8th: primary colors (red, blue, yellow)

September 15th: free choice

September 22nd: secondary colors (orange, purple, green)

September 29th: beginning sound “s”

September Signup Sheet

Our Food Preparation list for the month of September will be posted on Monday. If you are able to donate an item or two, please sign up on the sheet posted on the bulletin board outside of our classroom. Thank you!

The children enjoyed learning about the various jobs that people have in our community during the month of September. There were several works the students used to associate workers with objects of their professions (i.e. matching a fire truck to a picture of a fire fighter). A favorite classroom work was assembling our community map. The community map work was used to teach directions and locate various places and items found in our world. Our community works will remain on the shelves until Parent Night (which will now be rescheduled for a later date due to the Hurricane Day). Art work that was on display in our classroom for Parent Night is enclosed in this week’s folder in order to make room for our October projects. Your child’s textured coloring mixing paintings are also enclosed in this week’s folder.

During the month of October, the children will be learning about the various types of spiders and the anatomy of spiders. The spider will be the focus of art projects, including one inspired by our artist of the month, George Seurat, where the students will paint a spider in the style of pointillism. The students will also create a pointallistic jack-o-lantern.

Our composer of the month is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. As the children come to circle, they will be listening to excerpts of Mozart’s clarinet concerto, piano concerto and Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (“a little serenade” or “a little night music”).

Important October Dates:

Thursday, October 13th – Scholastic Book Orders Due

Friday, October 14th – UF Homecoming, No School

Friday, October 21st – Hurricane Make-up Day ~School will be in session~

Our October signup list for food preparation and Halloween will be posted on Monday morning. Please stop by and sign up to donate an item of two if you are able. Thank you in advance for your generosity and support!

Our first Parent Night of the year is Thursday, October 6, 2016. In order to accommodate enough space for everyone, the evening is broken up into two time slots, 4:30-5:15 p.m. or 5:15-6:00 p.m. Please be sure to sign up for a time slot on the sheet posted on the bulletin board outside of our classroom if you haven’t already done so.

Parent Night is an event for both parents AND students. Due to safety reasons and out of respect for all of the children in the class, siblings are not permitted to attend. Parent Night is not a time for individual conferences. If you have specific questions regarding your child’s progress, please make arrangements to meet with me at another time. See you at Parent Night!

October Show-and-Tell:

October 6th: things that “go-together” (bring in two objects or pictures that go-together = milk & cookies)

We had such a great time celebrating the Olympics in our classroom this month. Books, pictures and videos were utilized to spark discussions and activities about the Summer Olympics. Everyone made gold medals that were handed out after our very own Preschool Olympics. The events that were included in our Preschool Olympics were the relay, balance beam, long jump and Olympic ring toss. An album will be placed on Facebook soon. In the meantime, be sure to check out some great pictures from our Olympic unit on the back of this paper. The Olympic ring push-pinning and painting projects that have been hanging on our walls will be sent home in next week’s folder.

September Show-and-Tell

September 1st: beginning sound “m”

September 8th: primary colors (red, blue, yellow)

September 15th: free choice

September 22nd: secondary colors (orange, purple, green)

September 29th: beginning sound “s”

September Signup Sheet

Our Food Preparation list for the month of September will be posted on Monday. If you are able to donate an item or two, please sign up on the sheet posted on the bulletin board outside of our classroom. Thank you!

We had a fantastic first week of school! The children are doing a great job making new friends, choosing work and learning the ground rules of the classroom. They have been given many large and small group lessons. The children thoroughly enjoyed creating their “First Day of School” picture frames, which you will find enclosed in your child’s take-home folder.

Important Parent Orientation Information

Our Parent Orientation Meeting will be held on Thursday, August 18th at 6:30 p.m. in our classroom. I will be discussing the daily schedule, unit studies, expectations of the students and the Montessori curriculum. This is a time for everyone to become acquainted with each other and to ask any questions that you may have in general. Parents of new students to Millhopper Montessori and the preschool classroom are strongly encouraged to attend. The meeting is not a place to discuss individual student progress. This is an event for parents only. Childcare will not be available. See you then!